Seven years ago, prowling across the stage at Conservative conference in Blackpool, a charismatic young leadership candidate wowed his party and the assembled media with an energetic performance which dished his more experienced rivals. Afterwards, few could remember much of what David Cameron had actually said. What lingered was the upbeat modernising mood music and a strong impression that if the Tories chose him they could win again.
The Conservatives, battered by Tony Blair and defeated heavily in three elections, had waited a long time for a leader who could offer them the realistic hope of revival. On October 4, 2005, with that Blackpool speech, Mr Cameron convinced many Tories he was the man to do it. A few weeks later, he was installed as Michael Howard’s successor.
Perhaps because the baby-faced Tory leader still looks relatively young, it is easy to forget how long he has been around. “I’m on my fourth Labour leader,” he told Andrew Marr in a BBC interview yesterday. Indeed he is. Since Mr Cameron first appeared, Labour has got through Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, enjoyed an interregnum in which Harriet Harman ruled the roost as acting leader, and ended up with Ed Miliband.
Yet this autumn, much to the surprise of Tory strategists who based their calculations on the mistaken belief that Mr Miliband is hopeless and certain to lose the next election, it turns out that it is not Labour that has a leadership problem. It is the Conservatives who look at their man and wonder what’s up.
They are not about to dump him; there is no crazy leadership contest looming. But the optimism of Blackpool in 2005 is a distant memory. After living with Mr Cameron for so long, the Conservatives now have a bad case of the seven-year itch. » | Iain Martin | Monday, October 08, 2012
